Phenom Desktop SEM for Industrial Quality Control: How Vesuvius Foseco Improved Aluminum Cleanliness Testing

By upgrading their scanning electron microscope (SEM), the Vesuvius group has improved the aluminum cleanliness testing and overall quality of the cast aluminum products treated with Vesuvius Foseco solutions. In fact, using the Thermo Scientific Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM, the company’s scientists are now able to detect 7 or 8 times more particles on the same aluminum sample, faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Vesuvius Foseco and its role in foundry innovation

Vesuvius Foseco is the Foundry division of the Vesuvius group, a global leader in molten metal flow engineering and technology. With 11,000 employees spread across 40 countries, the company’s mission is clear: To deliver products and services that help make our customers’ industrial processes safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

The Foundry Global R&D Centre, based in Enschede, the Netherlands, is critical to this mission, serving internal customers across the entire Vesuvius organization, including internal research departments, commercial teams, and production sites. It contributes to new product development, process innovation, and building trust as a solution partner for foundries.

An essential group within the R&D Centre is the R&D Analytical Service Lab. It is responsible for quantifying the effectiveness of Vesuvius products, analyzing raw materials, and developing innovative analytical test methods to support the company’s mission.

The challenge of aluminum cleanliness testing

“If you start with a dirty metal, the final product will be dirty. By this, I mean that all the mechanical properties will be affected, from tensile strength to elongation, to toughness – which in turn can cause major problems upstream such as breakdowns, failures and rejects.”

– Hayati Sahin, MSc, Non-ferrous Metal Treatment R&D Scientist, Vesuvius Foseco

How do you ensure the utmost cleanliness of non-ferrous metals like aluminum used in mission-critical (and indeed life-critical) applications like automotive and aerospace? This is one of the defining challenges faced every day by the Vesuvius Foseco R&D Analytical Service Lab.

Identifying, analyzing, classifying, and then eliminating inclusions in the aluminum is the name of the game, but this is no easy task.

Aluminum comes in two basic forms: as a primary alloy (direct from the mine); or as a secondary alloy (recycled). In both cases, the foundry melts the aluminum, after which it is treated, de-gassed, cleaned, and filtrated. It’s at this point that the R&D Analytical service lab steps in.

Even the smallest inclusions can trigger major problems. For example, the presence of aluminum oxide can cause weaknesses along with excessive porosity in the material, which can form during the solidification of the molten aluminum.

Why a new SEM approach was needed

Like all industrial quality control operations, precision is essential. But given the sheer volume of samples and diversity of recipes involved, so too is efficiency and speed of throughput. Which is why for many years the R&D Analytical team has relied on the Thermo Scientific Aspex Desktop SEM featuring Perception Automation Software.

But while the Aspex Desktop SEM had served the team well, it was reaching end of life, leaving some areas for improvement, especially in the usability and speed of quantification. As R&D Analytics Lab Manager, Dr. Yasin Ugur Kayran, explains, “The SEM is an important tool for us to prove that our products deliver efficient aluminum treatment. With advanced automatized SEM technology, we consistently quantify the cleanliness of aluminum samples both before and after the treatment process.”

The team therefore assessed several brands of scanning electron microscopes but found these systems simply too complex and time-consuming to use. So, once again, they turned to Thermo Fisher Scientific for a solution.

Phenom Desktop SEM for industrial quality control

“For an operation like ours, continuity of service is essential. As soon as the Phenom ParticleX [Desktop SEM] was delivered, it was already in use. We found it very easy and intuitive to learn.”

– Dr. Ugur Kayran, R&D Analytical Service Lab Manager

Dr. Kayran and his team quickly settled upon the Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM with integrated Perception Software as the successor to their Aspex Desktop SEM.

With its automated functions, the Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM enables compositional failure analysis of metals like aluminum and steel at the nanoparticle level with exceptional accuracy and speed.

For the R&D Analytical service team, this, in turn, has opened the door to a whole new and more productive way of working, complemented by the development of its own sample prep method, which enables 12 samples to be placed inside the SEM and analyzed automatically.

A better way of working

So, what does this improved usability really look like in practice?

• First and foremost, all seven members of the R&D Analytical service department were able to learn this intuitive new system quickly and easily, minimizing downtime.
• Data-run settings logic within the recipe became easier, especially when handling multiple datasets.
• Recipe creation therefore also became simpler, which is essential for a busy lab working with dozens of recipes at any one time.
• Determining and adjusting thresholds. The number and nature of any allowable inclusions within a given sample became far easier and is now reflected in live imaging.
• Perhaps most importantly of all, the quality of imaging and, therefore, the amount of particles being detected, has soared.

Says Hayati Sahin, Non-ferrous Metal Treatment R&D Scientist, “Defining the thresholds in particular is key for us, but we had always found this challenging. However, with the Phenom ParticleX [Desktop SEM] it is simple. Based on the [grayscale] intensities being displayed by the SEM, anything showing up as darker or brighter than average can now be easily identified and classified.”

Results: Faster, more accurate particle detection

“Measuring the true effectiveness of the melt treatment products we deliver to customers used to be challenging at times, but the Phenom ParticleX [Desktop SEM] now enables us to achieve this in an objective way at the nanoscale. Everyone [on] the team uses the same automated technology and processes to deliver the same consistent results, with no room for human variance or error.”

– Dr. Yasin Ugur Kayran, R&D Analytical Service Lab Manager, Vesuvius Foseco

Today, the Vesuvius Foseco team is able to detect significantly more particles on the same aluminum samples at higher speed.

The R&D Analytical service team attributes much of this to the improved magnification of the Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM, which is largely made possible due to degaussing after each phase of analysis, where the internal charge is removed, and the optical focus therefore improved. This is in addition to the newer software and advanced components of the Phenom Particle X Desktop SEM.

However, this step-change has also been aided by smart work from Vesuvius Foseco itself. Unlike steel, there are no ISO analysis standard for aluminum, so the company established its own standard, called VMET.

By developing VMET, Vesuvius Foseco can now classify and compare interesting features in the aluminum samples (pores, oxides, and other particles) before and after treatment. Importantly, this would not be possible without Thermo Scientific SEM technology.

Key features for Aluminum Cleanliness Test.

Looking ahead: Scaling industrial quality control with desktop SEM

One year after taking delivery of the Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM, Vesuvius Foseco has set a new standard in its inclusion analysis of aluminum. But there are no plans to stop there.

With support from the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, the R&D Analytical service lab continues to discover new functionality and learn various “tips and tricks” that make their daily work even more productive. Other functions, like the automated industrial reporting function available with all Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEMs, are yet to be explored.

However, as Dr. Kayran explains, the key point is that the team now has a future-proofed solution that can grow with them. “We have good and easy communication with Thermo Fisher Scientific, which is important because already we have started pushing this system to the limits in terms of the samples we are analyzing. We are able to do this because this system is much stronger than we expected.”

Good news for Vesuvius Foseco and its customers.

The Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM: It’s not just for metal

The Vesuvius group is using the Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM for metal inclusions. However, this instrument is proven for use across a wide range of industrial quality environments, including additive manufacturing materials, technical cleanliness, steel, battery cathode powder, and gunshot powder residue analysis.

Not only is Perception Automation Software available on all Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEMs but also on various other Thermo Scientific instruments.